Helping English

Climax: is a way of organizing ideas in writing from the least to the most important. The writer creates  sense of progression and he may use single words, short clauses, longer sentences or entire paragraphs. The climax should be very distinctive and clear to the reader. Most writers make use of parallelism. “Curiosity leads to discovery, leads to knowledge, leads to wisdom.”

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Parallelism/Chiasmus:  parallelism is the art of using the same general structure for multiple parts of a sentence, or for multiple sentences. Parallelism makes the writing cohesive, and balanced. Parallelism in writing may occur at the word level, phrase level or sentence level. The waitress plunked down our menus, filled our glasses, and flipped through her order pad to a fresh page. To be grammatically accepted, parallelism must follow the grammar rules of tense; all parallel phrases and clauses must agree in the verb tense. All parallel single words must be of the same genre e.g nouns, verbs, adjective, etc.

Chiasmus occurs when the original parallelism flips mainly for extra impact. Compare the two examples.

“He smiled happily and laughed joyfully.” (parallelism)

“He smiled happily and joyfully  laughed.” (Chiasmus)

Generally, Chiasmus is considered more stylistic and ornate than standard parallelism. Usually one phrase or clause is flipped for style.

“I have journeyed in the lands of the spirit, drunk from the fountains of wisdom, rested beneath the trees of eternity, and, to the land of my birth, I have returned.”

The above example starts as a regular parallelism until the last clause where the adverb phrase [to the land of my birth] comes before the main clause [ I have returned]  which is chiasmus.

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Anadiplosis/ Conduplication: are two forms of repetition that can help add structure to essays. Anadiplosis takes the last word of a sentence or phrase and repeats it near the beginning of the next sentence or phrase. Words used this way happen to be near one another. 

“In education we find the measure of our own ignorance; in ignorance we find the beginning of wisdom.” (Anadiplosis)

Conduplication is the same except that it (conduplication) takes an important word from anywhere in one sentence or phrase and repeats it at the beginning of the next sentence or phrase. It helps guide the reader from one idea to the next by aiming directly at the key point of discussion and consequently it helps reader follows more easily.

“This law destroys the fruits of thirty years of struggle, bringing us back to a les enlightened time. Law should be evolutionary, building up rather than tearing down.”

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Metabasis:  is used to sum up what has been said before so that the writer can move on to a new point. It is a quick recap of what has come before. Metabasis is especially a very useful organizational tool in long essays and papers. It should be used with great care in shorter papers/essay should be avoided completely.

“Up to now, we’ve focused on rhetorical devices that help the writer strategically. Now we will explore those that help him or her organize an essay.”

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Parenthesis: is like a spoken ‘aside’ and is used to insert an additional information in writing. A writer may use parenthesis symbols (   ), dashes ( – ) or commas (,). Most writers prefer dashes or commas to parenthesis symbols as parenthesis symbols (  ) are believed to lessen the effect of whatever is inside them. Commas are most used to set off parenthetical material.

“This continued for many years – some would say far longer than it should have – before a new brand of politician put an end to it.”

“Because if was my birthday, my mother served filet mignon – a delicacy usually served for company.”

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 Apostrophe: is a forceful, emotional rhetorical device used to express the intense feelings. Apostrophe is breaking out of the flow of the writing to directly address a person or personified object. The use of apostrophe is very common in informal writing as well as in creative writing and persuasive essays.

“So we near our conclusion, and I must ask you, my wise reader, to bear with me for one more small digression.”  

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Enumeratio: Enumeratio refers to the act of supplying a list of details about something to expand on a central idea,  or lending force to that idea. Enumeratio may also be effectively combined with hypophora as an introduction. This can be seen in the famous Elizabeth Browning poem the begins with the hypophora, “How do I love thee?” and continues through enumeratio, “Let me count the ways.”

“This is actually a multi-step process: Think of an example, write it down, turn it in, and get a good grade.”

Exercise:

Read the following examples of rhetorical devices (organization) and identify the device used in each example.

_________________ 1.  “The reasons Halloween make me happy are many, but I certainly enjoy seeing children in their costumes and disguises, I love giving candy and treats to little kids, and sometimes I get a thrill from scaring teenagers when they come begging for sweets.”

_________________ 2.  Leonardo DiCaprio, star of Titanic and The Aviator, is very selective about his roles.  

_________________ 3. “Critics, beware! There’s a new film maker in town.”

_________________ 4. “I have laid out for you neatly and in proper array the various flaws in the current system. Let me next offer you workable alternatives.”  

_________________ 5. “Many early religions forbade freedom. Freedom for them was a way of allowing dissent to flourish.”

_________________ 6. “In life we must always keep aware of the constant ebb and flow. Life is a river, not a fact of stone.”

_________________ 7. “He began his career writing horoscopes for a local paper. By nineteen, he was writing front-page stories. At twenty-two, he published his first collection of short essays.”

_________________ 8. “She dropped her pack to the ground, slipped her boots off, tossed her coat onto a nearby chair, and sank to the floor with a sigh.”

_________________ 9. “We walked briskly along the seawall to catch the sunset, and quickly realized that we were too late.:

Answer Key:

1.  Enumeratio
2.   Parenthesis
3.   Apostrophe
4.   Metabasis
5.   Anadiplosis
6.   Conduplicatio
7.   Climax
8.   Parallelism
9.   Chaismus